Works in Progress

Stitching and dyeing are both underway. Stretched on my Mum's old freestanding needlework frame is an indigo piece I wrapped and dyed in Kutch. I am adding stitches to it little by little (slow work because my fingers are full of hacks due to chilly weather).

Yesterday was my long-awaited first dyeing day at home. Cotton perle, boucle silk yarn, various weights of wool yarn and some linen and khadi cotton fabrics all took their turn in the dyepot, followed by khadi and other handmade papers. I ran out of space to hang everything up but I'll fix that for next time. I was in blue heaven!

Chilled

That's my state of mind as well as temperature! Very happy to be home because I have brought so much colour and sunshine back with me. Lots of good memories and images from the last month and a substantial chunk of work underway too. 
March too is a busy month, with workshops and visits and presentations about the residency, but I am itching to carry on exploring with indigo.

Swati and Murji are already hard at work at Heriot Watt, and Swati is planning to interview several weavers in the Borders as she gathers stories from both sides of the world.

Just to say...

...I am heading back to Scotland at the weekend and look forward to being able to post images from the last month's explorations and experiments. Wifi here has been of the 'lite' variety lately when I have succeeded in getting online at all. It just about copes with emails but uploading images is too much to hope for.
So I'm sad to be leaving this rich seam of textiles behind but I have lots of great experiences to look back on, and a thousand ideas to take forward. I am definitely planning to share my knowledge and images with like minded souls so let me know if you would be interested in having me speak to your group and show them the treasures I have gathered. :)

Indigo and White

Picture-free post, I'm afraid, but just to say that I am busy at Kala Raksha, knitting the rest of my hand dyed indigo yarns, drawing decorative 'bits' for the map, and reading textile books. An excursion tomorrow means we should catch up with Murji at home and have another chance to drool over his handwoven shawls. We also plan to visit a seller of antique and vintage Kutchi embroidered pieces. The pace here is exceedingly sloooooow which is still proving difficult for this Westerner to adjust to!

PS Have just amended setings (again) so if you want to comment it should work now.

Blues!

My indigo dyed wool/cotton handspun, and some samples straight off the loom.

Off to Kala Raksha in the morning, travelling down with Anuja who will be teaching there this month. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting lots of new ones as I start work on a map of textile artisans who have studied at Kala Raksha and work in Kutch.... Lucky me!

Last Day at Khamir

I've been weaving most of the morning and am almost finished my mini sample blanket using Kala cotton warp and weft plus my handspun and dyed wool/cotton mix. Meanwhile the pieces I stitched yesterday to create shibori have gone off to be dyed with the block printed ones and I will get them back somehow next week. 

Quick update

Yesterday I was at Ajrakhpur with block printer Juned, and Ghatit and Meera from Khamir. Just so you are clear! Having stretched out the fabrics on the print table, Juned marked up my simple design on the fabrics and his brother quickly applied resist paste using the blocks I had chosen.

They look odd here, a yellow fabric with brown paste. The yellow is because the fabric was first boiled in a solution containing myrobalan, a natural mordant. The resist paste is a mixture of natural ingredients too. Once the alchemy of indigo dyeing has taken place, the resist will be removed and I should have lovely rich dark fabrics with the design in white (or more realistically pale blue, as the indigo will tint it slightly).

I have also done some shibori on two other pieces and they will all be dyed together. I have high hopes of the resultant set of designs, which I plan to stitch into once back home.

Challenging Times

Well, at least in terms of getting online long enough to post anything here!
It's a week since we landed in Ahmedabad and fell into our hotel beds for a few hours to catch up on some sleep. This time the city seemed a bit calmer; maybe festival fever has abated for a while. And certainly much cooler which is a blessing for a fair skinned Scot.
We spent our first days getting money and SIM cards sorted so that we could communicate with contacts here, as well as taking in different museums and visiting the dangerously addictive Gamthiwala in the market, Manek Chowk. Inside is a treasure trove of block prints in every hue - making a sensible selection when you really want every single one a challenge... Might have to go back on my last day.
On Friday night we went to Darpana Performing Arts Centre to an amazing dance performance.

We had a long long train journey west across the state to Bhuj on Saturday and then went our separate ways. Jeni is down in the south of Kutch at Kala Raksha, while I am staying at Khamir this week. Yesterday we had lots of discussions about what I want to do and how we are to achieve it. Ghatit takes his duties very seriously and is most anxious that everyone knows the plan. This meant four different languages at one stage - Hindi, Gujarati, Kutchi and English! I met Juned Abdul Khatri, a young award winning block printer in neighbouring Ajrakhpur and he is taking forward my odd block print + resist paste + indigo dyeing requests very calmly.

Counted Down

There are only about twenty four hours left until Jeni and I fly back out to Ahmedabad. 
This time I will have in my luggage the cotton/merino yarn I have spun, khadi paper and thread to stitch onto it with, a sketchbook to fill with ideas and research as I go along and another to draw a map on when I get to Kala Raksha. 

After just a few days in the city, we will be taking the train to Bhuj in Kutch where Jeni will head off to work at Kala Raksha and I'll be going to work at Khamir.
When I get an internet connection I'll be posting pictures here again.

Kala Cotton

Lovely raw Kala cotton arrived from Khamir this week for me. My plan is to blend it with merino and spin yarns from it. These I will take out to Kutch next month where we will dye them and I will weave them with undyed cotton to produce a range of ideas for artisans to incorporate into new textiles. That's the theory so I hope it works out!

It is still very full of debris from the cotton plants, as you can see from the close-up below.

   
So I carded my first batch a few times last night to remove as much as I could before blending it with white merino in a 60%wool 40% cotton mix. Here's the first 100gm ready for spinning.

Safely gathered in

Above - burnished indigo-dyed hemp paper and 100% cotton rag squares with 4 deckle edges

Below - burnished catechu-dyed hemp paper and a variety of papers incorporating grass, seeds, straw

Most of my pre-Christmas chores are done and I am itching to get started on new work. I have built up a stash of handmade papers from various sources and selected a few space-dyed threads to experiment with. 
Perhaps I'll even have something to show you in a week or two.
First, though, there are a few festive events to enjoy and a glass or two of port to savour!

If you are celebrating too, I wish you a very happy time. 

 

Plans for February

I am really pleased with how February is shaping up.  The month is all about working on the projects we have each devised so Jeni and I will be going our separate ways for much of the time.

The discoveries I made in October about khadi and several other 'k's have fused into a plan. I have the opportunity to stay first at Khamir's Craft Resource Centre where I will be working with a dyer and a block printer to produce some large textile pieces featuring indigo dyes on Kala cotton. 

A little explanation might help...

Khadi - khadi is not just a cloth, it is a whole movement started by Gandhi who began promoting the spinning of khādī for rural self-employment and self-reliance. True khadi cloth is handspun and handwoven. Khadi paper has a high percentage of cotton in it, usually now from recycled clothing.

Khamir  -  An NGO formed after the huge earthquake of 2001 which devastated the city of Bhuj and the surrounding area. In its own words, Khamir works  'to enable rural creative industries in Kutch to become profitable and a model of sustainable economic practice.' It also provides 'a common roof where artisans and experts with a commitment to craft practice can exchange knowledge, build capacities, offer supportive services and conserve natural and cultural heritage'. Khamir means intrinsic pride in Kutchi.

Kala cotton - an old world cotton which is mainly grown in Kutch. It has a much lower ecological footprint than modern hybrid cottons. Khamir seeks to reinstate old world cotton fabrics, involving farmers, spinners, dyers, weavers and designers to create products which promote the local economy.

I'm pretty pleased that this exhibition will be in progress when I am there too...

Selling and Stitching

I have ideas in notebooks, on scraps of paper and bouncing about in my head for the work I want to create based on my experiences in Gujarat so far, but still no time to put any of it into practice. 

the old - close-up of elephants and parrots on a toran I bought in Bhujodi

Had a very successful two days at the Art & Design Fair in Kelso this weekend, which means I now need to spin and stitch up some new stock for the next events. 

the new - a contemporary quilt stitched with shot silks for Qasab

I'm not wishing my life away but seriously looking forward to Christmas so that I can start on my new ideas!

All talk...

 ..on the India front. Plenty of plans, of course, and dreams and scheming, but lots and lots of talk! I enjoyed catching up with friends at my stall at St Abbs on Saturday and more while stitching at the Woolgathering on Sunday, not to mention showing off photographs and some of my Gujurat creations and purchases. 

This Saturday I am off to Dumfries to the Guild Gathering where I'll have my stall and, yes, be yapping some more about the last month's exploits. 

 
 And then, before you know it, the Crafters Art & Design Fair in Kelso will be my home for a couple of days mid month. I'll be spinning yarns there  - both sorts.

 

More dates popping up after that and on into December.
Really looking forward to taking forward my ideas for new work inspired by what I've seen and learned so far, but NO TIME yet!

A few of my favourite things!

 A textile selection to share with you - all returned to Scotland squashed in my luggage...
The tiny stitching on the bags above is Paako and Mutawa work, while the one below is Jat work. It's like a cross stitch but done in a faster way and used to produce very dense patterning.

 These fabrics are all khadi cottons, handwoven. If you click on the image you'll hopefully see how lovely and subtle the stripes are

 And these are just the tiniest sample of the simplest block prints. My own colour preferences are all too evident here but, as you can imagine, every colour is available. These are chemical shades but there are a myriad subtle natural dyed ones too.

 Jeni has been putting some great images up on this blog so you can get more of an idea of the sheer exuberance of Rabari embroidery, as well as watching a video clip of dancing at the Navratri Festival last week.

eternal summer to long winter

Back home in the foggy damp Scottish Borders, I'm reliving my adventures as I unpack the treasures I acquired over the month. I'm transported back to the khadi shop where I snapped up so many different subtly striped cottons, and to the market stalls where I succumbed to a bit of bling. Then there's the vintage toran richly embroidered with elephants which will be hung up shortly. I'll take some pics of the textiles and post them soon. 

A great buy was Judy Frater's book 'Threads of Identity' which I was delighted to have signed by her when I was at Kala Raksha.

The Last Post....

 Unless I am really bored in Dubai airport en route, I'll be home by the time I post again here. It has been a wonderful experience and I have learned a little about a huge variety of subjects, from textile techniques to laundry costs, squirrels to geckos, rice dishes to rickshaw driving! 

 My homeward luggage is probably double the weight of the outward trip, and that's not including the stuff that's being sent back... 
I'll leave you for the moment with these kite images and a close-up of Dayabhai's extra weft detailing on a blanket.

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Kutch and Kites

Kutch was full of great experiences and the opportunity to work directly with skilled artisans on their own territory. So we sat on people's doorsteps to stitch, or under the shade on a rug, or in an open air dyeing workshop. The weather is a huge advantage for all the arts involving water as you can dry fabrics and yarns quickly in the hot sun between processes. 

Back in Ahmedabad, we visited the Kite Museum yesterday, established in 1986. Ahmedabad has a famous annual kite festival in January where people take to the rooftops to pit their kites against each other. It's a fight to the 'death' as the strings are coated with ground glass paste!

Back from Kutch!

The wanderers have returned from the west of the state to the heat of the city. Ahmedabad is launching into nine days of festivity for Navratri and will get progressively busier and noisier as our final week here slips away. And it's a loud city already with every vehicle from scooter to bus enthusiastically peeping horns, roadside music machines blaring at seemingly random times and a sea of people and animals moving every which way at once.
All this after the rural calm of Kutch. It's an area of great contrasts in landscape and habitation and home to many different tribes and communities over thousands of years. Still hot, of course, but where we stayed for the majority of our time there was a welcome little breeze reaching us a few miles from the sea.

Blogger and iPad are not on good terms today and I cannot edit this post, only add to it. So the bottom two images are Jeni being shown how to wear a particular stitched bag, and one of the girls who were studying at Kala Raksha while we were there. Jeni showed them how to knit and it was a great hit. The girls are Suf embroiderers. Suf work is done from the reverse of the fabric in a satin stitch over counted warp and weft threads. They are accustomed to thinking work out as they do it, retaining numbers and shapes in their minds, so knitting came easily to most of them last week.

Rabari stitchwork

Mungiben patiently helping me with a seemingly easy form of chain stitch, miniature scale.

These are random images. I'll put more up when I can but wi-fi is a bit hit and miss at the moment.